MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. The Executive Committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) has excoriated the performance of the national team at the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup this summer, branding it disappointing, RFU President Alexander Dyukov said on Thursday.
"The result of the team’s work is disappointing," Dyukov told journalists after a meeting of the RFU Executive Committee earlier in the day. "The Executive Committee has extended its gratitude to team’s Head Coach Stanislav Cherchesov for his five-year work with the team."
"The team’s performance at the 2018 [FIFA] World Cup will remain an unforgettable milestone in our history," Dyukov added.
Last month at the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup, the Russian national team failed to clear the group stage of the tournament. The Russian football team wrapped up its European championship tour finishing in Group B’s cellar with three points after three matches.
The team kicked off its 2020 Euro Cup campaign with a 0-3 defeat against Belgium, and a 1-0 win over Finland - both matches were played in St. Petersburg, Russia. Nevertheless, they lost to Denmark 1-4 in Copenhagen on the night of June 21.
Head coach's resignation
On June 30, the RFU Technical Committee gathered for a session to assess the performance of the national team at the European football championship. The Committee gave Cherchesov’s endeavors at the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup low marks branding them unsatisfactory. On July 8, the RFU stated that the head coach of the national football team, Stanislav Cherchesov, and the governing football body of Russia had severed their contract.
Commenting on Cherchesov’s work at the helm of the national football team, Dyukov said that "the RFU provided all of the required conditions for the national team’s training process, we saw, how the work was done, and no one fooled around in the coaching staff."
"The coaching staff’s plan was implemented in full," Dyukov said. "However, we give an unsatisfactory mark as a result of this work".
Cherchesov, 57, took the reins of the national football squad in the summer of 2016 signing a contract with the RFU to work as the head coach of the team until August 2018.
In July 2018, the RFU extended the contract with Cherchesov for two more years stipulating an option of prolonging it for another two-year term. The decision of the Russian governing football body to maintain its partnership with Cherchesov followed the national team’s successful home performance during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Led by Cherchesov, the Russian national football team managed to reach the knockout stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup advancing with a win over the Spanish team in the Round of 16, and then losing on a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals to Croatia, who eventually went on to the final of the world championship in Russia.
Possible new head coach
Speaking about a possible successor to fill Cherchesov’s shoes, the RFU president said that a decision on this issue must be made before July 23, and the nationality of Russia’s possible new head coach plays no role whatsoever.
"[Well, as for the] nationality of the new head coach? First and foremost, we must be guided by the objectives we set, and not by a coach’s passport," Dyukov told journalists.
"We set two targets: the first one is to qualify for the [2022 FIFA] World Cup in Qatar, and the second is a long-term one, which aims to keep building up the national team for a successful performance at the 2024 [UEFA] Euro Cup," he clarified.
The qualifying tournament for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar resumes in September. Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw in Zurich on September 7, 2020 for Europe’s national teams, Russia was seeded in Group H with the national squads of Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.
In March, the Russian national football team played three group stage qualifying matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup defeating Malta and Slovenia with a final score of 3-1 and 2-1 correspondingly and then lost 1-2 to Slovakia. The Russian squad currently holds 2nd place in its qualifying Group H of the 2022 World Cup with six points.
"We are holding negotiations with several candidates [for the post of the Russian national football team’s head coach], they are confidential and I cannot reveal the names of the candidates to you, nor can I give you the details of the talks," Dyukov continued.
Asked about the term of a possible contract with the new head coach, Dyukov said: "We have both short-term and long-term targets and we want to attain all of them."
2020 UEFA Euro Cup
The 2020 UEFA Euro Cup, which was postponed last year over the global outbreak of COVID-19, ran between June 11 and July 11, 2021, in various cities across Europe. Italy won the championship defeating England in a penalty shootout on the night of July 11 at Wembley Stadium in London.
Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg was picked as a venue. It was among the 12 cities initially proposed in Europe to host European championship matches. St. Petersburg was granted the right to host three group stage matches and one of the quarterfinals of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup.
The decision to hold the 2020 Euro Cup, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020, in various European states instead of in one or two hosting countries was made at the UEFA Executive Committee’s meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on December 6, 2012. It was the initiative of UEFA’s then-President Michel Platini, who proposed the concept of the 2020 tournament "EURO for Europe".
Following the withdrawal of Bilbao and Dublin from the list of the championship’s hosting cities, the rescheduled 2020 UEFA Euro Cup was set to be staged in 11 cities, namely in London, England; Munich, Germany; Rome, Italy; Baku, Azerbaijan; St. Petersburg, Russia; Bucharest, Romania; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Budapest, Hungary; Glasgow, Scotland; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Seville, Spain.